Cambie Street Bridge to lose car lane for bike lane in pilot project

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – It’s one of the most popular, yet contentious issues for people who work, live or visit Vancouver: bike lanes. City Council has voted to put a separated bike lane on the Cambie Street Bridge, with construction to begin sometime in the first half of this year.

The vote came at their latest meeting and will see a southbound car lane on the bridge converted into a bike lane.
It’s a pilot project and will cost around $600,000 to construct, according to city staff.

Vision Vancouver Councillor Heather Deal says pedestrian and cyclist safety was a big factor when making the decision.
“The main problem here, is we have 71,000 bikes in one month crossing the bridge on the sidewalk, which is where we now allow them, and that’s in addition to over 50,000 pedestrians,” says Deal. “That’s unsafe for pedestrians, it’s not fun for cyclists either, and that’s really the problem we’re fixing.”

Documents from Vancouver City Staff show car volume on the bridge is the lowest it’s been in 20 years, however, cycling traffic is increasing.

In July, the city says 80,000 cycling trips were made across the bridge, the highest ever recorded while cycling volumes in June specifically have increased by 86 per cent since 2010.

NPA Councillor George Affleck agrees biking is more popular than ever in Vancouver, but he believes the project is too expensive.

“I think a can of paint and bit of work from staff for a couple of days could have painted the line on the existing walkway, to create a separate section for bikes and a separated area for pedestrians, and that would have done fine for right now,” says Affleck. “I think we could have assessed looking at the bigger picture for that area.”

Affleck feels council needs to move away from this “bike versus car culture,” and instead look at a dedicated bridge for bicycles and pedestrians.

However, Deal says they’ve already looked at the possibility, but it would cost around $80 million and it wouldn’t connect into the existing road network.

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